from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A soft composition, as of flour moistened with water or milk, or of earth moistened to the consistence of dough, as in making potter's ware.

n. Specifically, in cookery, a dough prepared for the crust of pies and the like; pastry dough.

n. A kind of cement made of flour and water, starch and water, or the like, -- used for uniting paper or other substances, as in bookbinding, etc., -- also used in calico printing as a vehicle for mordant or color.

n. A highly refractive vitreous composition, variously colored, used in making imitations of precious stones or gems. See Strass.

n. A soft confection made of the inspissated juice of fruit, licorice, or the like, with sugar, etc.

n. The mineral substance in which other minerals are imbedded.

transitive v. To unite with paste; to fasten or join by means of paste.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A composition in which there is just sufficient moisture to soften the mass without liquefying it: as, flour paste, polishing-paste, etc.

n. A mixture of flour and water boiled and sometimes strengthened by the addition of starch, and often preserved from molding by some added substance, used as a cement in various trades, as in bookbinding, leather-manufacture, shoemaking, etc.

n. In calico-printing, a composition of flour, water, starch, and other ingredients, used as a vehicle for mordant, color, etc.

n. In ceramics, clay kneaded up with water, and with the addition, in some cases, of other ingredients, of which mixture the body of a vessel or other object of earthenware is made. The paste of common pottery is either hard or soft. The hard is that which, after firing, cannot be scratched by knife or file. In porcelain the difference is more radical, the paste of soft-paste porcelain not being strictly a ceramic production. (See soft-paste porcelain, under porcelain.) The epithets hard and soft have reference to the power of resisting heat, hard-paste porcelain supporting and requiring a much higher temperature than the other. The paste of stoneware is mingled with a vitrifiable substance, so that after being fired it is no longer porous, whereas the paste of common pottery absorbs water freely.

n. In plastering, a mixture of gypsum and water.

n. In soap manufacturing, a preliminary or crude combination of fat and lye.

n. Figuratively, material.

n. Heavy glass made by fusing silica (quartz, flint, or pure sand), potash, borax, and white oxid of lead, etc., to imitate gems; hence, a factitious gem of this material.

n. In mineral, the mineral substance in which other minerals are embedded.

n. The inspissated juice of fruit to which gum and powdered sugar have been added.

Coca paste is another form of cocaine that is 60-80percent cocaine sulfate and can also be smoked. 7 The cocaine sulfate is a byproduct of the purification process of cocaine HCI and the paste may contain such impurities as lead, sulfuric acid, kerosene, and methanol. 5 In past years it had been used mainly by inhabitants of coca plant producing countries such as Peru7 but since 1982 has also become popular in the United States. 3 However, alkaloidal cocaine remains the predominant new form in use today.

The resulting paste goes on to become the main ingredient in many of America's favorite mass-produced and processed meat-like foods and snacks: bologna, hot dogs, salami, pepperoni, Slim Jim-like jerkys, and of course the ever-polarizing Chicken McNugget, where the paste from the photo above was likely destined.